Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is estimated to affect 2% of the general U.S. population and chronic pain is a common comorbidity among persons with HCV. The primary purpose of this study was to compare health service utilization of U.S. military veterans with HCV with and without the presence of comorbid chronic pain. ⋯ Patients with HCV and chronic pain utilize medical services to a greater extent than patients with HCV but no chronic pain. Future studies that examine the efficacy of both pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain treatment for patients with comorbid HCV and chronic pain appear warranted.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Measurement of affective and activity pain interference using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI): Cancer and Leukemia Group B 70903.
The Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) was designed to yield separate scores for pain intensity and interference. It has been proposed that the pain interference factor can be further broken down into unique factors of affective (e.g., mood) and activity (e.g., work) interference. The purpose of this analysis was to confirm this affective/activity interference dichotomy. ⋯ These results confirm that the BPI can be used to quantify the degree to which pain separately interferes with affective and activity aspects of a patient's everyday life. These findings will provide clinical trialists, pharmaceutical sponsors, and regulators with confidence in the flexibility of the BPI as they consider the use of this instrument to assist with understanding the patient experience as it relates to treatment.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effect of a Spanish virtual pain coach for older adults: a pilot study.
To pilot test the effects of a virtual pain coach on ambulatory Spanish-speaking older adults with pain from osteoarthritis. ⋯ Preliminary data indicate that the Spanish virtual pain coach might assist Spanish-speaking older adults to talk with their practitioner about their osteoarthritis pain and obtain opioid treatment changes, but that pain and depressive symptoms continue unchanged 1 month later. Additional refinement and testing is required for the Spanish-speaking virtual pain coach to determine acceptability and outcomes for assisting Spanish-speaking older adults to communicate about their pain with their primary care practitioner.
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To describe the value and utility in using a contralateral oblique (CLO) view when performing cervical, thoracic, and lumbar interlaminar procedures including epidural steroid injections and spinal cord stimulation percutaneous lead placement. ⋯ We recommend that the CLO view for thoracic and lumbar interlaminar procedures, in addition to cervical cases. Thus, when confirming proper needle placement for interlaminar procedures, the CLO view combined with anterior-posterior view yields safe multi-planar imaging and should be considered when a lateral view is unable to demonstrate target landmarks clearly.